I’m not sure how it is now but 8 years ago the crew beyond the COI requirements (most of them anyway) were required by the client.
Example: On the boats with 4 officer bridges that was a client requirement. Right before the last crash BP decided they wanted 5 officer bridges and so contracts were renegotiated. The same was true with ABs.
In the past it worked like this and I doubt its changed much. The oil companies contracted with the supply boat owners to provide services to their rigs. The oil companies had specifications out the wazoo which the supply boat companies had to agree to, everything from the DP class to the amount of mud they could provide, recorded safety record plus MUCH more. The supply boat owners could either meet the qualifications or be left out, there was some ole boy glad handing involved as there is in any business decision but the rules were pretty strict. The rate the oil companies are willing to pay for the supply boats is just a portion of the cost to drill per day and each portion adds to the total cost with the biggest cost being the drilling rig itself. Though day rates for rigs is going up they still are not near the rates of 10 years ago. Hence I don’t see supply boat or drillship wages getting close to the previous highs any time soon. But one might get in now and ride the wave if it comes and come out very well.
I’m not trying to compare to an LNG tanker. I just mentioned those numbers to spark discussion on margin–ASSume 200-300k day rate for LNG tanker which basically includes all costs (crew/food/parts/etc) to run the ship but the fuel.
My question is what costs/services/crewing/etc are typically included in a drill ship day rate? Is it just marine operation crew, but no drilling or drilling equipment repair crew? Only the minimum COI (basically, the ship drivers and a few licensed marine engineers)???
Drilling and cargo carrying are obviously very different worlds, but profit margins are still profit margins.
True, but it is insured. And when did cargo value ever prevent ship owners from bottom feeding on crew pay? lol.
Large container ships carrying high value goods could possibly be over $1billion in cargo, and outside the USA, box ships are considered “lower paying jobs”.
The ones I listed are on the ship’s dime (covered by the day rate): marine (capt/OIM, mates, DPOs, unlicensed), engineering (inclusive of all vessel and drilling maintenance), subsea engineers, drilling dept, deck/crane dept, warehouse/parts logistics, repair parts and inventory, catering contract and food. I worked on one that included the ROV crew but that is atypical.
On the oil companies dime (ergo not part of day rate) are fuel, supply boats, helicopters, other people and subcontractors like cement, mud log, casing, geology, directional, wireline, well engineers, and usually ROV.
So you are saying approximately: “So around 80 rig crew”. Relief crew costs are going to be same on most cargo ships with permanents.
So a drill ship has about 2-2.5x the amount of bodies to pay for (many of which cost much more than a cargo ship crew), a much higher capital and O&M expense book, but not a massively higher day rate? Am I analyzing this correctly?
Yes I think so.
Now you’ve got me thinking. I’m trying to remember back to the stacking days in 2015 when we went off contract (so fuel cost on us, limited maintenance spend) and cut crew to minimum safe manning on the COI (plus a couple needed others) the number that sticks in my head that company said we were losing around $120k/day.